Despite trying times in the industry, Great American Media CEO Bill Abbott believes his faith in building a cable network is being rewarded.
Last year, total-viewer ratings for Abbott’s Great American Family rose 76%, one of the biggest reported jumps for any network. In the first quarter, revenue rose 21% from Q1 2023, per the network, indicating demand for the family-friendly formula that the former Hallmark Channel head has brought to his new business.
Abbott is hoping for more of the same as this year’s upfront unfolds.
In conversations with advertisers, key talking points will be the quality of Great American Media’s content, the audience the channel is bringing in, the familiar talent on screen and the channel’s growth story.
Great American Family will put 50% more original content on the channel, including about 20 movies, Abbott said.
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“I think we’re delivering on what we set out to do when we started this. It seems like a long time ago, but it really isn’t. In linear, we’re competing with networks and beating networks that have been around for 20, 30 years,” Abbott said. "It’s fulfilling to see such support from the advertising community.”
The channel could use more support from the measurement business.
“We believe VideoAmp and their methodology is far superior than what Nielsen’s done,” Abbott said. Even Nielsen’s big-data methodology underweights some of the distributors that carry Great American Family in smaller counties, he said. “We’re having conversations around currency and how we approach the upfront.”
Great American Family has been delivering its pitch in one-on-one meetings with media buyers and clients. Its sizzle reel shows off the network’s talent, including newcomer Mario Lopez. Lopez introducing the network to buyers gives it added credibility.
“We’ve got a really strong stable of actors who are behind us and committed to what we're doing,” Abbott said.
Signing talent like Lopez and Carlos and Alexa PenaVega have helped Great American Media bring more diversity to its programming.
Lopez and his wife, Courtney Lopez, will appear in My Grown-Up Christmas Wish, which will be part of Great American Christmas 2024. The PenaVegas will star in the Great American Pure Flix movie Mr. Manhattan, which debuts May 24.
“Brand safety is important to advertisers, and our length of tune and C3 numbers are very, very strong,” said Kristen Roberts, chief revenue officer and executive VP of programming at Great American Media. “Our franchises like Great American Christmas are really big.”
Great American Family will be running its third Great American Rescue Bowl opposite the Super Bowl.
“Viewers love it and our advertisers love it,” Roberts said.
Last year, the Rescue Bowl resulted in more than 4,000 animals being adopted. “One of the most viewed pieces of content on PureFlix was a 2½-minute segment of the Great American Rescue Bowl that we broke out separately," Abbott said. “We want to lean into that more and more.”
Abbott started up Great American Media in 2021 amid the pandemic and was launching a cable network at a time when cord-cutting was eroding pay-TV viewers and making streaming more attractive to advertisers.
“There have been easier environments to navigate, but all told we’re doing exceptionally well,” Abbott said.
Building a cable network was the right strategy, he said. “It’s hard to grow a brand and ratings and an appetite for your platforms in a world that is extremely crowded and where content creators are prolific,” he said. “This has certainly not been for the faint of heart, but we are in a good place and we’re getting to a better place.”
Despite the erosion, Great American Family said it still has close to 70 million homes. “The linear model is a great way to build a brand and enter the mind of the viewer in a way we couldn’t do if we didn’t have a linear network,” Abbott said.
Demand for Family-Friendly Fare
He’s also sure there’s still an underserved demand for family-oriented content.
“There will always be a segment of the population that just wants to be able to not have to fast forward through something or feel uncomfortable when they’re watching with their kids,” he said. “That segment has been a steadfast rock to build around for many years and I don’t think that’s changing.”
Some of the pressure on the company was relieved when Great American Family merged with Sony’s Pure Flix, in a deal that gave Sony Pictures Television a 49% stake in the business.
"That was a game-changer,” Abbott said.
Sony is a solid source of content and Pure Flix gives Great American Media a foothold in the streaming business and helps it clarify the sometimes tricky line between being family-friendly and presenting religious programming.
“The streaming business allows us to present so much more variety and to be in a number of areas that are more faith-focused, while on the linear side, we’re more focused on creating an experience that isn’t at all uncomfortable,” Abbott said.
“Great American Family is Great American Family for a reason, and Pure Flix, with its heritage in the faith-based space, has a little bit of a different audience and different take on faith and family,” he said. “But at the end of the day, certainly we want to represent faith in a positive light on all services. It’s just a question of degrees and how to attract the broadcast possible audience in linear.”
